Succumbing to the Palin & McCain Republican chant Drill Baby Drill on March 31, 2010 the Obama administration approved new oil drilling along the U.S. East Coast and off the coast of Alaska.  Environmentalists were horrified, claiming all types of dire consequences to the fishing industry, aquatic life, wildlife, shoreline homes, beaches, and industries.  

Less than one-month later, the U.S. is now confronted with an environmental nightmare that will most likely dwarf the environmental tragedy of the Exxon Valdez 20-years ago.  

Government officials now say that the blown-out BP oil well, approximately 40 miles offshore, is spewing five times as much oil into the water as originally estimated – about 5,000 barrels, or 200,000 gallons, a day.  Not only did BP Oil initially claim the spill could be stopped quickly, they also said it was only 1,000 barrels each day.  By the way, a barrel is 42-gallons of oil.

According to the Washington Post, the Coast Guard worked with BP…to deploy floating booms, skimmers and chemical dispersants, and set controlled fires to burn the oil off the water’s surface.  Now, unable to stop the spill itself, the company is requesting assistance from the Defense Department,

especially underwater equipment that might be better than what is commercially available. A BP executive said the corporation would “take help from anyone.”

According to NPR’s Morning Edition,

The same day Obama announced his plan, Shell Oil President Marvin Odum told MSNBC that administration officials were persuaded that the industry can drill offshore with modern equipment without endangering the environment.

“They wouldn’t be saying that if they weren’t looking at the hundreds of millions of dollars of studies that the U.S. government did to answer the question, can it be done safely there,” Odum said.

The accident occurred because:

•a safety valve failed,

•BP significantly underestimated and some say outright lied about the amount of oil that spilled,

•BP claimed it could quickly stop and contain the spill.

It reminds me of Three Mile Island (TMI), where a valve failed to close, and the utility significantly underestimated the amount of radiation released and waited too long to notify government officials of the magnitude of the problem.

Hopefully no more storms will blow up for right now clean up and containment efforts are significantly hampered by 6 to 8 foot swells and winds blowing everything toward the Louisana coastline.  

If the Obama administration botches this response, we can count on the fact that both the Republicans and the environmentalists will be gunning for Democrats come election time in November.

In response to the spill, the U.S. will “use every single available resource at our disposal” in response to the spill, President Barack Obama said yesterday according to Bloomberg News. BP Plc, which owns the leaking well, is “ultimately responsible” for paying for the cleanup, the president said.

More than 20-years after the Exxon Valdez spill off the Alaska, $92,000,000 in damages have still not been paid according to the Environment News Service.  

Early in the morning on March 24, 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez struck Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound spilling more than 11 million gallons of crude oil onto the Alaska coast, causing an estimated $15 billion in damages.

The Exxon Valdez sits hard aground, spilling oil into Prince William Sound.

(Photo courtesy Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council)

The Exxon Valdez spill was one of the most worst environmental disasters in history. The spill covered over 10,000 square miles of Alaska’s coastline. Oil spread along 1,300 miles of shoreline, fouling a national forest, two national parks, two national wildlife refuges, five state parks, four state critical habitat areas, one state game sanctuary, and many ancestral lands for Alaska natives.

It killed hundreds of thousands of birds, marine mammals, fish, invertebrates; and disrupted the economy, culture, and livelihoods of coastal residents.

The cleanup took four summers and cost approximately $2 billion, according to a report by the state and federal governments.

The 1991 settlement following the guilty plea by Exxon Corporation provided for $900 million in payments, a $25 million criminal fine and $100 million in restitution.

The plea agreement also called for added payment of up to $100 million for unanticipated damages unknown at the time of the settlement.

The Alaska fishing industry was especially hard hit, with many fishermen (and women) being unable to make a living.  No funds were forthcoming for years and there was no government safety net to help people have money for basic necessities like food and shelter when their livelihoods were destroyed by corporate hubris.  Exxon, which has still not paid complete restitution has had more income during the past few years than any corporation in the world.

What does this mean for the Louisiana Gulf Coast?  This is the beginning of shrimp season and now the oil slick, only 5-miles offshore has begun to touch shrimp beds and the barrier islands.

According to the Washington Post,

“It is of grave concern,” David Kennedy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told The Associated Press. “I am frightened. This is a very, very big thing. And the efforts that are going to be required to do anything about it, especially if it continues on, are just mind-boggling.”

The oil slick could become the nation’s worst environmental disaster in decades, threatening hundreds of species of fish, birds and other wildlife along the Gulf Coast, one of the world’s richest seafood grounds, teeming with shrimp, oysters and other marine life. Thicker oil was in waters south and east of the Mississippi Delta about five miles offshore.

For President Obama and his democratic administration, this oil spill may be his Hurricane Katrina.  People in the Mississippi Delta area who depend upon the ocean and shore for their livelihood feel that they have once again been deserted by their government as they were in the days, months, and years following the debacle of Hurricane Katrina.

According to NPR’s Morning Edition,

Offshore oil drilling wasn’t always popular, but that changed in recent years with high gas prices, growing concerns about oil dollars supporting unfriendly regimes and the toll in dollars and lives of fighting wars in the Middle East.

During the election, President Obama promised change and a new green economy. Honestly, when is change going to happen?  Whether it is the financial debacle, the skewed climate bill, or the lack of a public option for health care, it seems to be business as usual in Washington DC.

“For years and years and years, I think the public associated offshore drilling with pollution and the risk to the environment and coastal economies,” said Athan Manuel of the Sierra Club environmental group. “But all those concerns flipped certainly when the cost of a gallon of gas hit $4 two years ago, and that was the primary driver for a lot of public opinion on offshore drilling.”

The politics of offshore oil drilling were looking so good that environmental activists had agreed to some additional drilling in a sweeping climate change bill. But Manuel thinks that may change.

“Our hope is that this spill kind of makes everybody come to their senses,” he said.

One big reason the public grew to accept offshore drilling was that for two decades there had not been any large-scale accidents.